Go Stones and Duel Monster Cards
by Lisa Telramor
Summary: Yuugi decides to visit Hikaru in Tokyo. Hikaru's not really sure what Yuugi's getting out of the visit, but Hikaru's having fun and Yuugi's having fun, so he's not in a hurry to find out. Sequel to Placing a Stone to Move Forward


_This is a sequel to Placing the Stone to Move forward. :)_

"So."

"So." Hikaru swung his arms, fishing around for a topic. The man in front of him looked equally lost for words. To be honest, Hikaru had never thought Yuugi would take him up on the offer to visit. They'd hit it off when Hikaru visited Domino for Akari's wedding, but that had still been only a handful of days to get to know someone, not really enough to form a lasting bond. "So this is Tokyo," Hikaru said, waving an arm vaguely.

Yuugi leaned on a suitcase that was almost as big as he was and smiled. "This is Tokyo."

It had been so much easier in Yuugi's grandpa's shop. "I could…show you around I guess. Were there tourist sights you wanted to see? I mean I guess there's Tokyo Tower, but honestly it's kind of overrated. Too many people and waiting in lines for a so-so view. And I've only been there once for a field trip in elementary school, but it wasn't all that memorable. I think Akari tried to get me to buy her some kind of pastry but I wanted to use my pocket change on one of those vending machines and…" Hikaru trailed off. Yuugi was still smiling and his eyes held warm humor like he was holding back laughing.

"It's fine." Yuugi's smile widened. "I have been to Tokyo before, Shindou-kun."

"Oh." Really he should have expected that. Yuugi had been to Egypt from what Hikaru gleaned from what few personal stories he'd tell, so why not other places in Japan? "Then I guess there's no real need for a tour or anything. I could show you the best ramen stand I've found and give you a tour of the Go Association instead?"

"That sounds perfect," Yuugi said, "but if I could stop at my hotel first?"

Hikaru felt embarrassed for another two seconds about forgetting that, yeah, Yuugi had a huge suitcase that would be really impractical to lug all around Tokyo—was he planning on staying a whole month or something?—but then the words actually processed. "Hey, hey, you're still welcome to stay at my apartment, there's no need to spend money on a hotel! I even have a guest room right now since my roommate moved out." Waya moved out to move in with his fiancée only recently, but Yuugi didn't need to know that.

"It's no trouble," Yuugi said. "I have money from tournaments saved up; I can afford to travel and stay in a hotel for a while."

Hikaru was skeptical about how much money Yuugi could possibly have from tournaments. Even winning title matches in the Go world didn't give so big a money bonus that Hikaru would rather stay at a hotel than bum a room off a friend. Touya probably would go for the hotel room though, so maybe it was just Hikaru's personality at play instead of some other kind of sense. Or maybe Yuugi was just shy. He scratched the back of his head. "Fine, hotel it is if that makes you more comfortable."

They took public transportation part of the way, and walked the rest, catching up in fits and starts.

"I was asked to test some new Dueling technology for Kaiba, goodness knows why he couldn't just test it himself."

"Did you?"

"Yes. It's one of the only ways we keep in touch these days. I half feel like he comes up with things to test to have an excuse to socialize except he hates people." Yuugi had laughed. "I should have known testing would mean flying out to that Dueling school he's planning."

"A school for Dueling? Weird. Though I guess no weirder than the theme park."

"Kaiba has big plans to expand Dueling. Who knows? If he succeeds it might just be part of the central economy."

Hikaru had shuddered and Yuugi had laughed again and changed the topic to something Hikaru could relate to more. Overall, Hikaru thought that Yuugi looked a lot happier than when they had met. There was less tension in his shoulders and the grief in his eyes wasn't dominant, more faded and resolved. He thought Yuugi might be finding who he wanted to be without whoever he lost, and that was a relief.

"How is your friend doing?" Yuugi asked on the way to the Go Association after his suitcase had been stashed away. "The one whose wedding you were at?"

Hikaru shrugged. "Fine? They're still married so I guess their marriage is going well. We talk maybe once every few months. We were close as kids but we drifted apart when I quit school to be a pro. I was a little surprised she invited me to her wedding really." And at the same time he hadn't been surprised because it was Akari and she kept track of that kind of tie even if Hikaru was terrible about keeping up with people he didn't see often. Actually, it was surprising he had kept in touch with Yuugi, though that was mostly due to Yuugi sending random texts or phone calls over the months. Hikaru usually remembered to answer that sort of thing. "It feels like everyone is getting married or dating or serious about relationships lately." He wrinkled his nose. "It's annoying."

"Mm, I know what you mean. It's harder to meet up with friends when they always have a date instead."

"I know right?" Hikaru sidestepped an old lady that was eying Yuugi's hair like it was something dangerous. Yuugi gave her a polite, entirely fake smile that made Hikaru want to laugh because people gave him the exact same look for his two colored hair. Hikaru's hair wasn't even defying gravity like Yuugi's. His mind skipped back to the topic at hand. "Waya got tired about trying to make sure I wasn't around for date nights and moved out, though he says it's because they're getting serious. If he was that serious, wouldn't it make sense to save money by keeping a roommate until he got married? But whatever, it's his life." The only person that didn't seem to be pairing up besides Hikaru himself was Touya. Hikaru tried to imagine him dating a girl and working around his parents to have privacy on a date night and, nope, brain did not compute.

"What?" Yuugi asked as Hikaru made a scrunched face.

"Do you know anyone that you can't picture dating someone, ever?"

"Yes." Yuugi hummed. "I don't think Kaiba could smile at someone and mean it in a warm way let along be in a romantic relationship."

From what Hikaru had heard about the guy, Kaiba Seto seemed more like the type to blackmail someone into marrying him for appearances and never speaking to the girl again. Yuugi seemed to consider him a friend despite his stories so, yeah, he wasn't going to poke at that one. "The weird thing is, I could see Touya having an arranged marriage if I sort of squint. And then it's like their whole life together would have a foot of distance between them at all times and they'd sleep in separate beds, and it would be the weirdest, most formal marriage ever, but I really can't see him dating."

"Your rival?"

"Yeah." Hikaru shrugged. "He's so serious and uptight with most people. I think I'm the only one he ever is anything but polite to." Hikaru grinned. "When we have unofficial games we end up arguing and he gets so pissed off over some of my moves it is kind of hilarious, though I'm usually just as pissed off at the time."

"Sounds like a strange relationship."

"Maybe a little, but it's fun though." Hikaru shrugged. "And there's the Association." He pointed ahead to the building. "We can get ramen after."

"You're going to want to play a game, aren't you?" Yuugi asked. He looked amused and resigned and a little bit fond. Clearly Hikaru was transparent.

"Yeah, but hey, I made up a deck of those Duel Monster cards and you can rip me apart at that later." Fair was fair after all.

"Fine." Yuugi grinned and it was kind of a creepy smile on a guy that didn't reach five foot and usually had a smile like a teddy bear. "You're going to lose badly."

"Yeah, yeah." Hikaru rolled his eyes and pulled the door to the Association open. "I can't be brilliant at all games like you can. I'll stick with Go and its patterns, not your luck-of-the-draw games."

"Duel Monsters is a strategy game."

"One where you go on blind faith that you'll draw cards you'll be able to use before your opponent. Yeah, I'll stick to my board and stones."

~o~

In retrospect, it was kind of hilarious to take Yuugi with his three colored, spiked hair, chains, and leather studded belts into the suit-clad conservative Go Association. They got bug eyed looks and head-turning stares that even Hikaru's overly casual presence didn't altogether explain Yuugi's presence away. They expected weird from him, but apparently they didn't expect it to extend to people he knew. Go figure. Then again, in Domino Yuugi didn't look out of place so Hikaru had kind of forgotten that he'd stick out like crazy here. Domino was an odd city.

At least Yuugi didn't seem to notice the looks. Or maybe he was just used to them. At any rate, he looked interested as Hikaru showed him where professional games took place, and especially interested at the Room of Profound Darkness.

"It feels heavy here," Yuugi murmured as he looked around. "Is it haunted?"

Hikaru laughed, though it was less from humor and more wry than he intended. If there had been ghosts here, he'd have known. "No. This room is only used for title matches though. Someone I knew once said you could feel the determination of the players at their best here." Hikaru leaned against the doorway. It was a memory he could even smile at now. "I've played here before and it's really intense."

"I imagine it would be." Yuugi didn't look inclined to wander any further into the room. In fact he was acting like it was some sort of sanctum which was kind of silly. At the end of the day, it was just a room. A room that had seen some of the best games of Go for the last few generations, but a room nonetheless.

"Want to see the archives?"

"Yeah." Yuugi was slow following, but Hikaru got that. It was hard to not be in awe someplace that felt charged like it did.

The archives should have been a step down after the Room of Profound Darkness, but Yuugi looked as intrigued by them as he had the room, albeit in a different way.

"How far do the records go back?" he asked, staring at the shelves of kifu.

"Uh…" Hikaru had been told at one point, he was sure, but… "I can't remember. But there's some pretty old stuff and they have records on some of Honinbo Shusaku's games that I've looked at before." He didn't want to admit to the phase where he'd rooted out every kifu he could on Shusaku's games because it was like reliving a bit of Sai with each game he studied. "The Go Association has a lot of records for the history of Go in Japan but… Someone else could probably tell you more."

"Did I ever mention Duel Monsters came from ancient Egypt?" Yuugi asked. He was eying a stack of kifu like he wanted to start reading them. Hikaru didn't think Yuugi would ever be even a fraction as interested in Go as Hikaru was but it felt good to see him interested.

"No, I hadn't heard that."

"Around three thousand years ago, Egyptians had spirit monsters that they bound to stone slabs. The monsters were Ka—a part of the soul—given physical form, and people would battle each other with them."

"Huh." That sounded…kind of like a weird fairytale of the scary kind. "So people locked souls into stone and battled each other. Wouldn't that mean killing someone?"

Yuugi shrugged. "Sometimes. Sometimes people willingly let their souls be sealed away to be of use. They say even gods were locked away in the tablets and only the Pharaoh was able to use them."

"Weird."

"Not everyone could do it though. It was mostly an ability of the Pharaoh and his magicians."

Hikaru shook his head. Yuugi talked like it was real and he believed that people actually had fought with souls. The thought of a soul being bound to something though… "That would kind of suck for whoever got bound. You could never move on."

"Mm," Yuugi hummed. "It had to have been a big choice for whoever chose it." He shrugged. "Then again, the Egyptians believed in five parts of the soul. The Ka is the vital spark of life that gets sealed away, not the Ba—the person's personality or sense of self. At the same time…you need both the Ba and Ka to have an afterlife so…" Yuugi shrugged. "I don't know how that would affect things. Maybe the Ba would linger with the Ka or maybe it would move on."

Hikaru shivered. That all felt a bit too much like everything with Sai. He switched the topic down another track. "Then Go's almost as old as Duel Monsters. I swear someone told me it was thought up over twenty five hundred years ago in China or something." He tapped a finger along a spine of a kifu book feeling uneasy at how close this conversation was getting to things he usually tried not to dwell on. "We both ended up caught up in games with ancient history. How likely is that?"

Yuugi smiled. "Not so likely I suppose. Duel Monsters was rediscovered by accident. It's a lot more interesting how Go has lasted through the centuries in some ways."

"I guess." Outside of the time periods Said existed, Hikaru didn't care about the history. He was looking forward to the future of Go and pursuing the Hand of God. He guessed it didn't mean forgetting the past; they were building off the techniques and dreams of the past after all. He just never thought to give much time to knowing the particulars.

"I'd like to look at some of these kifu sometime," Yuugi said giving the archives one last look. "But that can wait for another time. Would you like to play a game?"

There was something in the way he said it that felt like he was quoting someone else, and it wasn't the first time Hikaru had felt that, but if he was, it wasn't someone Yuugi had introduced him to. Hikaru grinned. It had been a while, he wanted to see how Yuugi had improved in the months since they last played a game. "Yeah. I know a good spot to have a game."

~o~

If Hikaru hadn't been the kind of person to improve at Go in leaps and bounds already, he would almost be jealous of how good Yuugi had gotten. Yuugi's playing style was deviously subtle with traps and false leads, and with another couple years of playing Hikaru was sure Yuugi could probably give even the current title holders a run for their money. Right now Yuugi didn't have the ability to see as far ahead as he needed to or adapt his strategy on the fly. His traps, if Hikaru deviated far enough from where they could harm him, could sometimes be used against Yuugi. But things like that came with experience and practice, neither of which Yuugi had much of yet.

"You know," Hikaru said as they moved into the endgame, "you're a pretty terrifying person."

"Hmm?" Yuugi didn't look up from the board, hyper-focused. "I'm not that scary, I just love games. I'm not much good at anything outside of them."

"Sure." Hikaru cut off a section of Yuugi's territory and watched how Yuugi looked frustrated where in their first game together he had looked more or less resigned to his loss from the start. "I wasn't much good at soccer before I found Go, so I get it. Still, you're really adaptable to transfer skills from one game to the next."

"It's all about taking the least predictable routes and throwing your opponent off," Yuugi muttered. "Though clearly that doesn't work with you."

Hikaru snorted. "I'm usually the one pulling ridiculous, seemingly pointless moves and springing traps. It's Touya that gets ruthless about what the 'logical' routes are. He's started being a bit less straightforward lately though. He's starting to see through my tactics so I'll have to adapt too."

"Hmm." Yuugi made a move and stole one of Hikaru's stones like Hikaru knew he would. It was worth it because it meant Hikaru could take the left corner while Yuugi was worrying over a couple stones.

"You've gotten a lot better."

"I've been playing with Grandpa. He's had a lot of fun beating me and I don't think I'll be satisfied until I can beat him at a game."

Yuugi's grandpa was good. Hikaru had no idea why such a strong player would be a game shop owner. He could have easily been a pro and gotten titles if he'd played seriously rather than 'enjoying a game every once in a while' as he put it. All that potential between the two of them made Hikaru want to drag them into the Go world in some way shape or form, and he kind of got why Touya had been so obsessive way back when about playing Go with Hikaru because finding someone good in unlikely places made you want to seek them out and see their potential again and again.

"Give any more thought to what we talked about?" Hikaru asked casually.

This time Yuugi did look at him. His focus retreated enough for Yuugi to smile and shrug. "I thought about it, but Duel Monsters is still where I belong." He looked down at the board, placed a stone in a terrible location that didn't really do anything. "I've started getting involved with it again."

"I thought so since you were helping Kaiba test things, but can you blame me for asking?"

Yuugi laughed. "No. Though if I'm this easy to distract…" He frowned at his last move.

"Eh, distraction is just one more part of the psychological game that you get used to. In serious matches I carry a fan. I swear, I think I scared someone half to death just by tapping it. It wasn't even something I was doing on purpose."

"I could see it." Yuugi tilted his head. "It was probably less the fan and more the difference between how you are inside a game compared to normal."

"Probably." It was a completely different mental state and he became ruthlessly competitive where he was ordinarily pretty laid back. Huh, he could make the difference even more pronounced if he wanted to, add an extra edge to how his opponents thought of him, but that would be a lot more paying attention to how he acted than Hikaru cared to do. He'd just stick to being himself. Mind games like that belonged to old man Kuwabara or Ogata.

They counted up their territory as the game finished and Hikaru was still several moku ahead, but the gap had closed a bit from the last time they played.

"If we keep playing games, I'm going to have to watch my back," Hikaru joked. "I'm supposed to be the pro here."

Yuugi grinned the same unsettlingly devious smile from earlier. "I was known as the King of Games," he pointed out. He didn't sound sad about the title like he had months ago when Hikaru mentioned it, just teasing.

"King-shming, I have a reputation to protect." They cleaned up their game and Hikaru stretched. "So. I promised you ramen."

"Lead the way." Yuugi smiled mischievously. "Then I can beat you at Duel Monsters."

~o~

Hikaru didn't know why Yuugi chose now to visit Tokyo, or what he got from hanging around Hikaru a few hours every day besides a lot of bombardment of Go-related things and occasionally someone to lecture about Duel Monsters since Hikaru was pretty hopeless at the card game.

Yuugi had met Waya and Isumi and a few other Go players Hikaru was friends with, but he hadn't met Touya yet. Hikaru was looking forward to their meeting.

Yuugi still hadn't said how long he was staying.

They sat cross-legged on the floor of Yuugi's hotel room with a game of Duel Monsters spread out before them with imaginary lines for where each card was supposed to go as Yuugi tried to help him work on strategy. Hikaru thought it was kind of pointless when he didn't know if the monster he built a strategy toward would survive long enough for him to draw a card he needed for whichever particular strategy it held. He supposed that was why most Duelists built themed decks so that there were a variety of strategies that didn't depend on being lucky that you drew cards compatible with each other.

He hadn't wanted to bring it up at first, but the more he started to know about Duel Monsters, the more it bothered him; Yuugi's Go wasn't the only thing to change since they last saw each other.

"Hey Yuugi?" He'd tried early on to use Mutou, but Yuugi had said to use his first name and then proceeded to conveniently ignore that Hikaru had given him permission to do the same. "Can I ask you something?"

Yuugi fingered the edge of one of his cards, looking a bit wary, likely because Hikaru'd had a huge tonal shift and hadn't even meant to go from amused at how awful he was at building a card based strategy to serious and pensive. "What is it?"

"Your deck is completely different than it was at the game shop when you were teaching me. Why'd you change it?"

Yuugi played with the edge of the card more. "It probably seems weird, but I've actually changed my deck a lot. I usually have some core cards that are my favorite, but most Duelists have a couple of decks that they are comfortable using. You can't stick to one deck too long or people will be able to use your deck against you."

"Makes sense," Hikaru said. "But the deck you were using before was a lot of dark and magic focus. This is a lot more trap and effect monster heavy." It was also a little weird that so many of the monsters were focusing around toys and silence.

Yuugi sighed. "The deck from before…wasn't only my deck." He looked uncomfortable. "This one…is."

Hikaru frowned. "If the other deck wasn't yours, why were you using it?"

"This particular deck has some bad memories tied to it," Yuugi admitted, turning a card around in his hands, "and the other one had better memories. I thought…" His voice got softer. "I thought maybe it was time to bring back my deck and if I could handle using it, maybe I could figure out a new deck that fits me now." He rearranged his cards in his only to put them right back where they had been. Hikaru didn't get it, but this apparently was something serious for Yuugi. "It seems like a pretty pathetic deck compared to the other one, I know. All little monsters with lower attack and defense with effects and traps and spells to make them effective." He smiled but it wasn't a very happy expression. "I always preferred strategy based decks. This deck felt like me back then."

"The little guy using strategy to get by?" And more than that, there was a teamwork element to his deck with the different cards that related to each other with the magnet warriors and the gears.

"Kind of."

It didn't seem like Yuugi wanted to go into it any further, but it didn't feel right to let the conversation trail off there either. "…does it still feel like the deck fits?"

Yuugi shook his head. "When I made it I was at a very different point and how I saw myself… Everything was indirect and with someone else by my side. The person who used the other deck…He was the one that made things happen even if we both sometimes shared that deck."

There was something missing from the explanation and Hikaru couldn't put his finger on it. It had to do with how whoever had the other deck shared it with Yuugi which was…weird since decks seemed pretty Duelist exclusive.

"Then does the other deck fit better?" Hikaru asked after a moment.

Yuugi snorted. "No. I know it better, but it's not me any more than this deck is." He looked at his cards. "I kind of miss it, but it's not really my deck."

"But it's important to you," Hikaru said after a minute. He wasn't even going to pretend to be playing the game anymore. His turn had long since come and gone and neither of them were paying the slightest attention to the fact that they were only halfway through a Duel. Taking a stab in the dark, Hikaru added, "It's important because it belonged to the other guy."

He wasn't sure, but it felt like this was the same friend Hikaru noticed Yuugi mourning when they met. If it was anything like the situation with Sai, even the slightest bit, a mentor figure and friend who left a hole when they vanished from their life, then Hikaru understood. He'd have avoided Dueling and held onto some part of that person. He still did with his fan and his hoarded kifu and his Go. Yuugi's lack of an answer was answer enough.

"Maybe you can take the parts that fit you from both decks," Hikaru said, "and then make a new one." He scratched his head. "It'd…It'd be keeping a part of him in your Dueling to acknowledge how he fit in your life but taking part of you and showing how you've grown." Not grown past or grown from, just grown, Hikaru thought.

Yuugi blinked and then looked at his deck and the suitcase next to the hotel bed thoughtfully. "…that might work," he murmured. He glanced at the unfinished Duel between them and Hikaru rolled his eyes.

"I am down to five hundred life points anyway. I know when I'm beat."

Yuugi smiled and it wasn't the warm one or the sad one or the scary one Hikaru was getting to see with alarming frequency lately, just…grateful. For the first time, Hikaru wondered how Yuugi interacted with his other friends. Hikaru had heard a lot about them but he had the feeling that none of them would have had this discussion with Yuugi.

Setting their game aside, Yuugi went digging through his suitcase until he came up with a leather case like the one he kept on his belt to hold the other deck. The snap popped open and cards slid free. Hikaru watched Yuugi shuffle through the cards quickly once, then more slowly the second time through, lingering over certain cards as he went. After a while he pulled out three cards. Hikaru leaned closer to look at them.

"Dark Magician, Kuriboh, and Multiply?"

Yuugi smiled sadly at the Dark Magician card. "The first two were his favorite cards. Multiply was used to win us one of our first Duels."

'Win us,' Hikaru thought. 'Our.' There were questions upon questions. Hikaru picked up his own deck and stared at the cards he hand chosen for himself. He'd added Water Hazard and Izanami to his deck just because they reminded him of Sai. There were reasons for every choice, but for Yuugi who had so many memories attached to cards it had to be even harder to choose. No wonder he was having trouble with his deck. But the use of 'our'…

Yuugi picked up the Kuriboh card and smiled fondly at it. Weird that Yuugi liked it so much, but then he had Watapon in his deck which Hikaru was led to believe was considered one of the worst cards in the game. He looked away, caught something out of the corner of his eye and looked back fast.

Hikaru stared. There was a…thing, no, a Kuriboh in the air next to Yuugi and it was transparent, but it was there and it was looking right at him. He squeaked.

Yuugi looked up from his cards. "Shindou-kun?"

Hikaru opened his mouth, then shut it because this wasn't the first time he'd seen things most people couldn't and he knew how crazy that made him look last time. He stared over Yuugi's shoulder and Yuugi turned to see what he was looking at and stared at the Kuriboh too.

"Oh." Yuugi looked from the Kuriboh to Hikaru, and back at the Kuriboh. "So you can see them too."

All at once Hikaru remembered the discussion in the archives the other day and something clicked in his brain. "Oh my god, you weren't joking, they are souls aren't they?"

Yuugi blinked like this wasn't the first place he'd expected Hikaru's brain to go. He reached out and touched the Kuriboh like it was a solid creature instead of a transparent ghost thing. The Kuriboh made a cooing sound that would have been cute under any other circumstances. "Most of them probably were at some point," Yuugi said. "The Dark Magician was a magician for the Pharaoh, but there are a lot of monsters that didn't exist in ancient Egypt too and there's no saying where their spirits come from."

"I…see." He didn't. He really didn't. This was too surreal. Any more surreal than being possessed by a Go obsessed ghost from the Heian Era? "Can a lot of people see them?"

"Not really. If they can see them it's usually just cards that they have a connection to." Yuugi stroked the Kuriboh looking pensive. "Kaiba can see his Blue Eyes."

"Do you believe in ghosts?" Hikaru blurted because if anyone would get it, it might just be Yuugi with his weird spirit monsters that possessed cards of all things.

"Yes," Yuugi said without hesitation.

"I used to be possessed by a ghost from the Heian Era," Hikaru said before he could second guess himself. He'd never told anyone and now the words were tripping off his tongue like a confession. "He, Sai, was crazy Go obsessed and dragged me into Go fighting every step of the way, only I ended up liking it and he just wanted to play Go. I let him play Netgo, but then I wanted to play too and I didn't let him play people as much and he played games with me but… But we played all the time and he taught me, and then I went for pro." Hikaru stared at the deck of cards in his hands. It was old old guilt welling up, guilt that he'd mostly set aside now because it couldn't be changed. What happened had happened and he'd moved on with his life. "He started fading and I didn't even notice until he was just gone one day. I don't even know if he wanted to pass on. All he talked about was achieving the Hand of God and playing as much Go as he could." His hands were shaking and he couldn't look Yuugi in the eye. It felt terrifying to say all that out loud but at the same time it was taking a burden off him, his deepest secret revealed.

"I spent two years sharing my body and soul with the spirit of an amnesiac Pharaoh who sealed his soul away to keep an evil creature from destroying the world," Yuugi said. "He'd spent three thousand years with his soul bound to a piece of gold and I didn't even know he existed until a couple months of having him possess me at random times."

Hikaru laughed incredulously. How was this his life? How had he run into someone who actually had a more messed up encounter with ghosts than him? "Uh. Sai didn't possess me exactly, but he could kind of make me sick when he got too emotional." He looked up and found Yuugi looking back at him with understanding and that was a good feeling. "Two years is a long time to have someone in your head and at your side, isn't it?"

"I had to Duel him to send him to the afterlife," Yuugi said. "Most of the Duels I'm known for were him."

"Sai used to possess Shusaku. He lived Shusaku's whole life playing as him and Shusaku's considered one of the sages of Go." Hikaru took a shaky breath. "When he first disappeared I thought that if only I'd done the same he wouldn't be gone."

"He was like a part of my soul I never knew I was missing," Yuugi said.

They sat consumed in shared grief, somehow fresh and raw for sharing it.

"You said you stopped playing Go," Yuugi said after a while. His hand hadn't left the Kuriboh and the Kuriboh didn't seem inclined to leave him.

"I thought if I didn't play, maybe he would come back." Hikaru swiped at his face realizing he was tearing up. "It was stupid of me."

"It's easy to be desperate," Yuugi said in a small voice. "I almost pushed away everyone I cared about. Everything worked out in the end but…"

"Yeah." Hikaru laughed and it came out sounding a lot more broken than he'd intended. "That's the first time I've ever told someone."

Yuugi smiled tentatively. "I don't think I ever really had to talk about it," he said. "My friends kind of got sucked into things and either figured it out or lived stuff with me."

"So ancient spirits from Egypt."

"Yes."

"Playing Go again helped," Hikaru said. "It was something he gave me so…"

Yuugi picked up the Dark Magician card and cradled it in both hands. "I think I'm starting to understand what you meant about finding him in your Go. I'm not there yet, but I will be."

"You made the first step," Hikaru said.

"Thanks to Kaiba," Yuugi muttered. "He doesn't let people wallow."

"Hooray for stubborn friends," Hikaru said and laughed. He felt light inside.

"Kaiba's a friend who thinks he's my enemy," Yuugi said, but he was smiling.

"Want to trade stories?" Hikaru asked. There was someone he could talk about Sai to who would understand and wouldn't go trying to hunt Sai down or think Hikaru was crazy. Heck yes was he going to capitalize on it.

Yuugi pulled a pillow from the bed and hugged it in his arms. "Sure. You're probably going to have a lot of trouble believing it though."

"You have a fluffy spirit hanging around your shoulder and I spent two years with a ghost that thought a TV had actual little people living in it. I can adapt."

~o~

If Hikaru thought Yuugi looked happier when he met him at the train station than he had at the game shop, after their talk about their respective ghosts, Yuugi looked like he was practically glowing with good energy. It was weird. He kept smiling at nothing, but Hikaru couldn't really blame him. Hikaru kept smiling at nothing too. It had his mom asking if he was feeling alright when he visited, which was silly because why would he be feeling wrong if he was smiling?

He'd finally asked how long Yuugi was planning on staying in Tokyo and Yuugi had said he had left because he needed some space to figure himself out and Tokyo and Go had felt like the right plan at the time. At the rate Yuugi was building his new deck, card by card, Hikaru had a feeling that Yuugi wouldn't be staying all that much longer. He was finally moving past his grief and toward a goal, though what exactly that goal was Hikaru couldn't tell. He thought maybe Yuugi wanted to become the King of Games everyone thought he was, either in some sort of memory to the Pharaoh or to prove to himself that he could. Hikaru didn't think the toy and silence aspects of his deck would last long once Yuugi got serious because if he was anything like Hikaru was in a pro game with a Duel, then he'd be too intimidating for that deck. Seeing how Yuugi got with Go, he probably was a really devious Dueler when he went all out. He still hadn't met Touya yet and Hikaru planned to fix that. It was a good thing he already had plans to meet up with Touya for a casual game.

"We're going to a Go salon today," Hikaru said, grabbing Yuugi after Hikaru's scheduled shidougo sessions.

"The one you showed me before with your loud friend?"

"No, not the one Kawai goes to." Hikaru laced his fingers behind his head. "We're going to Touya's family's salon. We try to meet up a couple times a month to play unofficial games. What kind of rivals would we be if we never got to play games against each other?"

"Does he view you as a rival or do you just see him as one?" Yuugi asked curiously. He actually was wearing more leather than usual and Hikaru couldn't wait to see Touya's reaction.

"He made me his rival before I even thought of him like that," Hikaru said, grinning. "I told you how he played Sai. Anyway, he showed up for ages demanding that I play a game of Go with him, joined his school's Go club to play in a tournament against me even though he was way too good for a middle school tournament even back then, then got pissed at me when I tried to play him instead of Sai." Hikaru snorted. "It was ridiculous and his intensity kind of scared the crap out of me, and then he started ignoring me so I started chasing him when he became a pro. He kept track of how many months it had been since the last time we played a game against each other. He's kind of ridiculous and obsessive and gets so angry if you insult his Go, it's great."

Yuugi laughed and it took Hikaru a minute to realize he was being laughed at.

"What?"

"You sound equally obsessed," Yuugi said between giggles.

"Yeah…well…" Hikaru scratched his cheek. "We have a lot of history, I guess. And playing Go with him feels like having some kind of mental breakthrough every time."

"That's good." Yuugi got his laughter under control, though he was still smiling too wide and looked like he could start laughing at anything he found even a little bit funny. "I'm glad I've gotten to meet your friends. You'll have to meet mine if I can get them all in one place."

"They're spread out?"

"Once school finishes, people go to follow their dreams." Yuugi shrugged. "I stayed at the game shop, but Kaiba's the only one that didn't change his life, and he was already the CEO of a company."

"I guess that makes sense." It was a bit weird to think about though. "I never finished school and Akari's really the only old friend I keep up with, but yeah, that would be a pretty big shift."

"You never finished school?"

"Nope. I was gone as soon as I made pro." Hikaru smiled and shrugged in a what-can-you-do sort of way. "I was pretty bad at it anyway."

"Me too, but I got my high school diploma just in case."

"Do you like working at the game shop?" Hikaru asked.

It took Yuugi a moment to answer, walking with his hands folded over his stomach the way he sometimes did like he expected to find something there. "I don't dislike it," he said finally. "I like being around games and people who like them. I like keeping up to date about what new games come out and staying in touch with the Duel Monsters world through it. But it's more Grandpa's dream than mine."

"What's your dream?"

"I don't know," Yuugi said.

They were thoughtfully silent most of the rest of the walk. That was fine though. Yuugi had the same look on his face that he had building his new deck. Hikaru figured Yuugi would share his ideas once he had them filled out enough to put words to.

~o~

Ichikawa-san waved them in when they got there and Hikaru covered the fee for both of them.

"Akira-kun's at the usual spot," she said, her eyes lingering on Yuugi curiously. She didn't ask questions though, and that was part of why Hikaru liked her. She also was one of the few people who could get away with teasing Touya.

"Thanks," Hikaru said. Behind him, Yuugi nodded, giving her a nervous smile before following Hikaru toward the back.

Regulars nodded or called out that this time Touya would win. Hikaru didn't take it personally. He had his own fans that would do the same if Hikaru ever thought to bring Touya to one of the Go salons Hikaru frequented.

Touya looked up as Hikaru approached and lifted an eyebrow at Yuugi training behind him. It took a lot of self-control not to laugh as Touya zeroed in on the belts and chains before coming to rest on Yuugi's hair. He was too polite to say anything about it of course. Touya had no problem pointing out that Hikaru was too old for dying his hair weird colors (too old, pshh, he could do what he wanted) but he wasn't going to say anything about a stranger's choice in appearance. "Shindou," Touya said, standing. "And…?"

"Mutou Yuugi," Yuugi said with a quick bow of his head.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," Touya says with politeness he only showed Hikaru once at the very start of their rivalry. "Do you play Go?"

"I play from time to time," Yuugi said and glanced at Hikaru. Hikaru could practically hear him thinking that Go players had one track minds. You complain about Go withdrawal one time and…no, it was accurate, but Yuugi could get the same way with Duel Monsters so fair was fair.

"We met when I went to Akari's wedding," Hikaru said in explanation. "He's visiting Tokyo at the moment."

Touya smiled. "I hope you're having a good stay. We'll have to play a game while you're here."

"After we play," Hikaru said, because it was hard enough to get time to meet up and like heck was he passing up a game with Touya, sorry Yuugi.

Touya looked torn between politeness and wanting to start playing. Yuugi pulled up a chair and waved them toward the board. "There's plenty of time for me to play later." He grinned. "Besides, I want to see how Shindou-san plays when he's being more serious."

"I'm serious with all my games!" Hikaru protested, but no, that wasn't really true. "Well, most of my games."

"Shindou-san, you're still playing shidougo with me. I want to see you play for real."

"Fine, fine." It wasn't like Hikaru wanted to protest anyway. He settled across from Touya. "Nigiri."

~o~

Inevitably, his game with Touya ended in an argument. They were better than they used to be, keeping their voices down instead of shouting terse criticism at each other, but it was still an argument. Hikaru thought Touya had been too predictable. Touya shot back about Hikaru not even being able to read his own moves all the way through to their conclusions, so how could he predict where Touya was going with his? They were almost at each other's throats over a squabble in territory during the end game when Yuugi broke into their bubble of anger by laughing.

Hikaru and Touya turned to stare at him, shocked out of the argument. As Yuugi kept laughing, almost doubled over and red-faced with breathlessness, Touya started to look flustered.

"I'm…I'm sorry," Touya muttered. He was blushing. Hikaru had seen his face get red from anger, but never embarrassment. It kind of made him want to embarrass Touya more just to see what other sorts of expressions he could discover. "That was unprofessional of us."

Hikaru snorted. "We always get like this. You don't apologize to the regulars."

One of said regulars—when had they started watching the game? Hikaru hadn't even noticed—said, "He doesn't need to apologize; you're the one that disrupts everything."

"I do not!" Hikaru pointed at the guy. "Touya gets worked up all on his own! Why does no one ever believe that you have a temper?" he asked, turning his finger back on Touya.

Touya batted Hikaru's hand down so he was no longer pointing. "Stop being so rude. And no one believes it because you're always rude and I rarely am."

"Ha! You admit it!"

"Yes, Shindou," Touya said drily, "I admit I am not always polite to people. Especially you in particular."

"Yep. You're rivals," Yuugi said, still sniggering. "Only rivals can make each other completely lose control like that."

"Oh, you know that from experience?" Hikaru teased.

"Jounouchi. He sees Kaiba as a rival and gets pissed off and Kaiba only eggs him on. Of course Kaiba sees me as more of a rival than Jounouchi, so he always goes out of his way to try and rile me up. Too bad I see him as more of a friend than a rival." Yuugi wiped a tear away from his eyes as he got his giggles controlled.

"Huh, so no reciprocated rivalry. That's a bit of a bummer." It was only fun if it was reciprocated in Hikaru's opinion.

"Eh, well. Kaiba's sort of a rival. It's a weird relationship with him."

Hikaru thought about Yuugi's story on how they'd met. Yeah, the fact that Yuugi could consider Kaiba a friend after Kaiba stole from Yuugi's grandfather and then nearly killed Yuugi and his friends several times was kind of amazing. It left hope that Hikaru would be forgiven if he ever screwed something up though, because Yuugi had the largest capacity for forgiveness of anyone Hikaru had ever met.

"My turn now?" Yuugi asked turning to Touya with puppy eyes that he pulled off far too well. (Yuugi looked like a kid and would probably be able to pull off puppy eyes until he was forty because no one would believe he wasn't a twelve year old until his hair started greying.)

Touya pulled himself together and was all politeness again as he smiled. "Of course."

The game between Yuugi and Touya went a lot faster than the one with Hikaru. Hikaru hadn't noticed Yuugi's tendency to play quickly before, perhaps because Hikaru played faster when he felt like he knew the flow of the game. It was interesting to observe two players he knew well from the outside and he felt proud all over again at how far Yuugi had come as stones filled the board. Yuugi was clearly losing from halfway through the game, but he gave little ground and kept the loss from spanning a large margin as they played toward endgame. It was clear Touya would win, but neither player seemed to care about that. Go with Yuugi was fun, Hikaru realized. Touya was exhilarating to play, Waya was comfortably familiar, Ochi was annoying, Izumi was tricky, Ogata was terrifying, and Yuugi was just plain fun. It was clear that he was having fun and maybe that was what made playing him fun. Whatever the logic, Touya looked like he was having fun too. He didn't give off the usual scary focus he got with Go and looked almost relaxed, though there was no question that he was still focused on the game.

Somehow Hikaru would have to arrange for them to play again because Touya needed to look relaxed more often. Seeing him relaxed made it all the more obvious how stiffly he usually held himself.

"You win," Yuugi said, as they placed the last stones. "It was pretty clear as soon as you got control of the center of the board."

"You did well though," Touya said. "Your tactics in the lower left corner were unexpected. I almost fell into your trap."

"I'll have to keep practicing so that next time I can catch you off guard," Yuugi said smiling.

Miracle of miracles, Touya gave him a genuine smile back. "I look forward to playing you again."

~o~

Yuugi had been in Tokyo for almost a month when he slotted the last card into his new deck and declared it finished. The deck had Yuugi's penchant for traps and spells with a mix of spellcasters and trios. The Kuriboh and Dark Magician took their place next to Yuugi's Silent Magician LV0 and Toy Magician.

"I guess this means you're ready to head home." Whatever Yuugi had come here to accomplish, the deck pretty much marked its fulfillment.

Yuugi shrugged. "I was called a few times to come back already," he admitted. "Jounouchi was starting to worry and I think Kaiba is too in his own way." Yuugi snorted. "At least I'm interpreting his two messages about wasting time and needing a reliable beta tester that way. It could just be Kaiba being an entitled ass, but…"

Hikaru grinned. "Can't keep your friends worrying, I get it." He sprawled back against the foot of Yuugi's hotel bed/ it was funny how comfortable he'd gotten in that hotel room over the month. "This has been fun. Next time I'll have to visit you."

"Have a Duel deck ready," Yuugi advised. "Most people I know are obsessed with Dueling so it's better to have one."

"Yeah, and considering some of the stuff you've gotten into I think having a deck makes my chances of living through any possible weirdness get higher." Some of Yuugi's stories…yeah, they kind of trumped Hikaru's weirdness scales in leaps and bounds. Hikaru shook his head. "I'm glad you found what you were looking for."

"Me too." Yuugi touched the new deck fondly. "I wonder where this deck will take me?"

"You'll have to keep in touch and let me know."

"I will."

It was a little weird how Hikaru thought of Yuugi as a close friend, at least as close as Waya, but they'd shared secrets no one else could really understand and had made efforts to understand each other's interests, which Hikaru never really bothered with doing for other friends. It was a good feeling and he'd miss playing Go against Yuugi on a regular basis.

"Want to play a game?" Hikaru asked with a nod to the travel board they'd been using in Yuugi's hotel room.

"Sure." Yuugi grinned with the grin Hikaru was starting to recognize as an echo of Yuugi's Pharaoh spirit. "Let's play a game."

 _AN:If anyone is curious, I imagined Hikaru choosing a lot of cards for his Duel deck just because they reminded him of Sai. Spell cards that reminded him of Sai are: Brain Control (Sai's emotional bleed over), Premature Burial (for...yeah, Sai's early death), Water Hazard (obvious reasons), and Spring of Rebirth. Monster cards like Mystical Elf and Dark elf also get the recognition factor due to their long hair, but Izanami was a card that caught his eye quick and he recognized that it reminded him of Sai from the get go. Out of curiosity, anyone else have ideas of cards Hikaru would put in his deck?_


End file.
